Methane in the Pittsburgh Coalbed, Washington County, Pennsylvania

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kim, Ann G.
• Description:
  Methane in coal constitutes a serious hazard during mining. Draining the methane from large blocks of coal in advance of mining is an effective method of improving the safety and efficiency of coal mining. Because of the similarity of the two gases, drained methane can be recovered and added to pipeline supplies of natural gas. To effectively apply advance drainage techniques and recover drained gas, a gross estimate of the methane content of coal is necessary. Using data from previous investigations, the virgin reserves of the Pittsburgh coal in the central and southwestern parts of Washington County, Pennsylvania, are estimated at over 1.5 billion tons, with a methane content of 50 to 100 ft3/ton. The Pittsburgh bed in this area of approximately 265 mi2 contains over 130 billion ft3 of methane. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Methane Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Mining-industry; Coal-mining; Coal-gas; Mine-gases; Methanes; Methane-drainage; Natural-gas; Gases
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Subseries:
  Report of Investigations
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Conference Publications ; Case Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRC - Pittsburgh Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-16
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:10000609
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB237848
• Citation:
  NTIS: PB 237 848, 1974; :1-16
• CAS Registry Number:
  Methane (CAS RN 74-82-8)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1974
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b1a6991121897e6562e2e3bf16e2489b4048db1c4feeb27b242d4f6edbca6d2ebc2d380b43d32c45bdf83953f969f4ce9feb875824c3cf74fbaf480977fe125d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/237850/cdc_237850_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.02 MB ]